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20101222

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Summary: It’s the prison-staffers and the SAPS who are the biggest killers of prisoners being held in State-custody; in Zululand, gutsy cops have shot dead four armed black thugs who had just stormed a shop in Greytown; in Gauteng, the SAPS is increasingly lax in releasing the names or any details of violent-crime victims who are being murdered in the most horrendous fashion: who was the fifty-year-old bloodsoaked Kempton Park woman found in her tub with a Pick ‘n Pay supermarket-bag tied over her head; and who was or the murdered male owner of an Audi whose cellphone and car were recovered while his body was being burnt by ‘14-year-old-youths’ alongside the Kliprivier Road in Vereeniging…

2010-12-21 Jacques Steenkamp reports in Beeld newspaper that the bloodied corpse of a fifty-year-old woman was found on December 20 2010 in her bathtub with a plastic bag tied over her head. SAPS captain Pinky Tsinyane – who did not want to release background information about the woman, said her neighbours contacted the police and asked permission to break open her front door after they couldn’t trace her on Monday. The neighbours then made the horrific discovery. Imagine this: the police ‘could not tell what she had died of.’ They didn’t say if they were even investigating a murder, either and of course no-one was arrested.

2010-12-22 also: Man, 18, arrested in stolen Audi - Vereeniging, Johannesburg - Two 14-year-old boys were arrested in Vereeniging Wednesday for a so-named hijacking: they tied up the car-owner and torched him on the Kliprivier road on Tuesday night, said Captain Mega Ndobe said. He died before an ambulance arrived… whenever…

These dear little “boys” were arrested at about 11:30 in De Deur and would “face charges of robbery and murder” – under the Child Protection Act the trial will be held in closed court even though an 18-year-old man was also arrested driving the Audi… so the names of these vicious violent terrorists will never be published. The 18-year-old person was arrested in Katlehong earlier on Wednesday driving the stolen Audi, which was being tracked by a security company. Because there are rewards for finding such valuable cars, patrolling cops were quick to spot it. The 18-year-old was arrested – and then the cops also found the torched owner’s cellphone inside the vehicle. It’s not entirely clear what else may have been ‘robbed nor who the unfortunate Audi-owner may have been to warrant such kind treatment at the hands of mere children. Ndobe said the dead man's name and all other particulars about his background would be ‘withheld until all his relatives had been informed.’ Of course they will be. http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Boys-14-held-for-setting-man-alight-20101222

2010-12-22 Johannesburg – Meanwhile a lot of cops are still daring to go out to fight crime: in Kranskop Zululand, four armed thugs who had stormed into a business in Greytown were shot dead in a fierce gun-battle on Wednesday, December 22 2010.

Colonel Jay Naicker said the staff was robbed of jwellery, wallets and cellphones. The fleeing gang was spotted at 08.30 near the Kranskop area. “When police attempted to stop the men, they opened fire on police. There was an exchange of gunfire between the suspects and police officers. All four suspects sustained fatal injuries and died on the scene," he said.The stolen items were recovered as well as three police-issue, 9mm pistols. Again, many important details are omitted: i.e. the name of the shop, and whether any of the cops were injured. Let’s hope not: they are worth their weight in gold.http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Robbers-killed-in-Kranskop-shootout-20101222

December 22 2010 Cape Town - Meanwhile Cape Times journalist A’Eysha Kassiem quotes inspecting judge Deon van Zyl as saying that ‘prison officials are the biggest killers of prisoners’. Combined with the earlier report warning that thus far this year, 566 people had died in SA police custody – and that was by October 30 2010 – this paints a very grim picture of South Africa’s new-style ‘democracy’ where trial-awaiting prisoners – people presumed innocent until proven guilty – can be tortured in police jails and prisons at will... Why can so many people’s deaths in custody of the State go unpunished? Because ‘South African law does not classify torture as a crime…’ warned van Zyl in his report.

Prison officials are the biggest killers of prisoners, according to a Judicial Inspectorate of Correctional Services report by Inspecting Judge Deon van Zyl. The number of inmates murdered by prison officials was even more frequent than murders committed by other inmates and raised “serious concerns”.

“Officials appear to have been involved in acts of violence against inmates who are alleged to have assaulted an official or other inmates . These actions often constitute a form of revenge in response to an attack on an official,” he said, citing ineffective disciplinary measures at the disposal of correctional officials.

“Swift criminal prosecution should, in appropriate cases, ensue, particularly where the level of violence constitutes cruel and inhumane treatment of inmates, if not acts of torture. Our reading of the reports, however, indicates recalcitrance on the part of authorities to take decisive action against correctional officials involved in such cases,” he said.

Seasonal water-safety patrols on Gauteng streams, dams cancelled this year

December 22 2010 – JOHANNESBURG, South Africa. Disappointed members of the SA police's provincial Waterwing in Gauteng reacted badly to the news that their specialist-wing will close 'because it is too white'. Their annual public-safety water-patrols to prevent more drownings among the hundreds of thousands of seasonal holiday-makers were abruptly cancelled this year.

SAPS general Phumzo Gela of the provincial crime-prevention unit wants to disband the waterwing because, he said, 'there is no racial equality'. He stopped the Waterwing’s annual water-safety patrols on Gauteng’s many dams and recreational streams, purportedly because ‘they are just wasting police money riding around on their boats’. On average three people a day drown in South Africa.

This quick-thinking cop, warrant-officer Jan Pretorius, in August pulled a drowning black child from the Balfour dam when he saw the boy struggling in the water as he drove past. The child ran off amongst the nearby squatter shacks without saying a word. Three months later on Oct 18 2010 Pretorius was shot in the legs by during a shootout with a crime-gang, and still managed to shoot an armed criminal dead in self-defence.

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In South Africa each day more than 3 people drown. Over a third of these drownings are of children under the age of 14 and most are black. It was also revealed in Parliament that for every child who drowns, five are left with permanent brain damage and trauma.

Gauteng’s government this year also launched a R4.5-million campaign at public swimming pools and schools across the province, giving free swimming lessons to children and their teachers to try and prevent more drowning deaths - including at 18 schools in Soweto during school hours.

Police-divers do some of the most gruelling and traumatic jobs, often retrieving drowning victims while weeping relatives stand at the water’s edge .

No water-safety patrols this season in Gauteng:

Now, this unit has been withdrawn from their holiday-patrolling duties on the province’s many recreational dams and waterways this holiday season. Divers fear that many more people will now be put at risk because they aren't patrolling the waterways this season.

This Highveld region is famous for its many recreational dams and streams. The province also is the commercial heart of South Africa containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria which house milions of residents. During the Christmas season, many tens of thousands of people – of whom the vast majority cannot swim -- take to the dams and streams.

This was always was the busiest working-season for the SAPS-Waterwing, with its volunteers giving up their time to be with their families to patrol the water. The dams and picnic spits along the Vaal river – despite its high level of pollution – remain particularly popular and each year, there also are many drownings.

It was noted in parliament earlier this year that there were more than 400 drownings in South Africa in 2009 – and that most were black victims who were unable to swim.

Many people also commented that the reason why there are 34 white divers in the team of 42 members was the perception that 'blacks cannot swim very well and don't like to swim'. Waterwing-members themselves also pointed out many of the new recruits for their diving-courses give up without completing them because "the courses are too tough."

The Gauteng Waterwing - which drew its volunteers from SAPS-stations across the province - works an average of 1,060 extra hours to carry out their often dangerous life-saving duties. In research undertaken by Roland Booysen for his doctorate at Unisa university, it was found that in 2006, had rescued 139 people and also recovered 139 corpses of drowned people; assisted 138 times at crime-scenes and also assisted 27 times to dive up crucial police evidence – in this one province alone. (March 2009 University study of SAPS-Gauteng waterwing: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/10500/2607/1/dissertation_booysen_r.pdf

“We are just buzzing around on boats wasting police money?”

SAPS Waterwing member Julian Botterill (picture from his Facebook page) writes: "I am a member of the Waterwing and all our preventative water-safety patrols on the dams have been cancelled this holiday season.Many rumours are going around as to why. One general was rumoured to have said that 'we just wanted to steal the SAPS' money; that we are just buzzing around on boats while wasting the police's money.What those generals don't know is that we still have a passion for our jobs and that saving human lives still means something to us.We place our lives on the line every day to bring people's loved ones back to them so that they can be buried. We are the first police-officers to ask for help from other members because there are days during the rainy season when we don't get any sleep for two days or more, rescuing people.However we do need police-officers who can do the job even if they have the politically-incorrect colour of skin. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1456265958

“We want to protect our fellow human beings irregardless of race and we also fight against crime in the front-line’

SAPS diver Chris Swanepoel writes: "Remember that each diver is a volunteer. You aren't posted to the Waterwing by the SAPS, you fight your own way into this unit. Why? Each one of us has this one thing in common: we do it to help protect our fellow human beings and to help them.We also fight in the front line against crime, fighting it tooth and nail. But we are always prepared to go that extra mile when it comes to saving human lives when people are in danger of drowning. Water is one of mankind’s most fun places to play in, however we are also well out of our element when it hits the fan.All we ask from police management is to give us sufficient equipment, time and support to carry out our duties as Police officers.We do the rest, you don't need to motivate us. In my twelve years as a police-diver the skin-colour of any victim has never had any influence on our job-performance. Never. Why does the SA Police Service now want to dictate the race of the rescuers? Does it make any difference whether a white person helps a family in danger or helping a family retrieve a body of a drowned loved one? I don't understand that kind of reasoning. Every member of the Waterwing puts his life at risk to rescue fellow human beings irregardless of their skin colour. http://www.facebook.com/chris.swanepoel3

A relative writes: 'My brother-in-law is in the SAPS Waterwing and during Christmas, when he should spend time with his family, he is diving up corpses of drowned people, and most of them are blacks. Imagine the constant trauma of having to do this. He has undergone years of intensive training and regularly attends updater-courses to hone his skills. Now the SAPS wants to 'teach people to swim within three months' to handle these kind of rescue-operations because there purportedly isn't racial equality in the waterwing? The new recruits for those courses often withdraw by themselves because it's just too awful a job. These police-officers take drowned people from the water and treat them with dignity so that they can hand them over to their families for their funerals. It isn't everybody's cup of tea to do this work while family members stand on the shore, weeping..." the woman, writing as Ice457 wrote (http://twitter.com/Ice457)

Picture: this highly specialised SAPS diver risked his life to retrieve the body of an Australian tourist from one of the world’s deepest fresh-water caves: the Boesmansgat in Jan 2005. The Gauteng crime-prevention chief now wants to disband the waterwing unit in his province because ‘it’s too white’.

Two Boer-farmers in South Africa describe their terror-filled lives on besieged farms: they have to risk their lives working in the veldt, armed with handguns against black militia-groups who plan their attacks with AK47s with military precision. Yet this remaining handful of valiant farmers is still feeding the nation:

December 20, 2010 – L Lotz, a reader of the Afrikaans-daily Beeld, reacting to criticism that farmers ‘aren’t alert to murder-attacks’, writes: “my dad was murdered in July this year in front of my sixteen-year-old son. The murderers arrived at the homestead at 4am after poisoning three fierce guard-dogs with temik. They shot dead the fourth dog...”

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My wife and children were staying with my parents on the family farm to help them out after dad ‘s surgery. My wife did have a gun and fortunately those barbarians could not get their hands on it. My dad however was too ill after surgery to handle a gun. And my children surely cannot each sleep with a gun at their side?

Have you ever had to work night and day with a firearm on your side and even sleep with it after activating your security system? As a farmer you have to carry out your daily tasks and you can’t go about with feelings of revenge while doing your job.

In some stage while working you would be on your back, fixing things or you’d be standing amongst the livestock with your back to whoever. After the farm-attack, our insurance company Landmark then still sent a private detective to establish that we did not commit fraud after the murderers fled with my vehicle. We notified the vehicle as stolen but the insurance company just ‘wanted to make certain that I was not involved in having my father murdered and claim R100,000 insurance…’

These farm-attackers are well-organised, they have time on their side and they observe their target in a military-style operation, they try to eliminate us through our weakest points.

However we also live in a society where we have to earn a living and where we have to look after our workers and our family. It is my right to not have to walk around with a firearm all day long and wanting to take revenge against everything which moves. And no, dogs don’t.

And have you ever thought about the consequences if you were to shoot dead a home-invader, and you end up in prison for murder and are forced to leave your family behind, uncared for?

G.Coetzee of gcatsea@yahoo.com from Bloemfontein reacted: “First of all my most sincere sympathies with your loss. Mr Lotz, I do know what it feels like to lose a family-member. My brother was stabbed to death at the age of 21 in the Cape. And believe me, I am very security-aware. One way is to keep your dogs inside your home and to always keep your gun right next to you at all times. This isn’t about ‘feelings of revenge’, this is done to defend yourself against any possible attacks. If my house is invaded by attackers or if anyone shoots at my, believe me I won’t worry about going to prison because I defended myself, I will do everything in my power to protect myself and my family at that moment. That’s why an armed security guard is also a good idea to have on a farm as a deterrent against attack-gangs with AK47s. Because those gangs go for ‘soft targets’ such as ill and elderly Boers. Farmers have to adjust their lifestyles even if it’s drastic. Much strength to all of you. G Coetzee gcatsea@yahoo.com, Bloemfontein

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '